Right, here's the situation: : I need to make the motherboard power cable on my ATX PSU shorter for a project : Only way I could think of it to chop the middle sections out and solder them back together : I'm not great at soldering So basically, will poor soldering affect the quality of the supply to the motherboard? I can make a connection that won't break or anything, but will a non-perfect one decrease performance? Also, any other ideas for shortening the cables are welcomed.
bad wiring connections could impact the quality of your PSU. But, you are talking about one of the easiest of soldering jobs. It is just a matter of tinning (applying some solder to each of the exposed ends) and then joining the wires. You should use some heat shrink to cover your solders as well. I think it was Cool Hand that had done this job. Instead of cutting out a section in the middle he made his cut inside the enclosure. He had a helpful tip to stagger where you make your cuts so the added diameter of the heatshrink didn't prevent it from making it out of the hole of the enclosure... hope this helps. Hopefully, Cool Hand (if that was the one who had done it) or someone else who has actually done it will read here. [edit] just remembered this... should get you on your way... http://www.bit-tech.net/review/79/2
Cool. Well the PSU won't be in an enclosure due to space requirements (this is a half-size PSU too). I remember the staggered soldering thing from somewhere on bit-tech actually. Could have been Macroman. He was putting braiding stuff on the motherboard cables and cut off the wires and resoldered them to get the braid on. I don't need amazing quality of voltages, since it's a low power system, but obviously enough fluctuation will crash any PC. Yeah, I'll get hold of some chunky heatshrink if I can, since I don't want the cables shorting. Thanks for the help. Ooh, thought I may as well mention it here since it's to do with PSU modding Linear used some quick disconnect plugs on his invisible case for the 230V in socket. Where can I get hold of some of these in the UK since I want to do the same thing
Just to say that I also shortend all the leads on my enermax PSU for Project Bulky II. I too followed Macroman's lead - not pun intended - and stagered the joints using heatshrink as I went along. I also removed any unnecessary molex connectors too, including the extra 12v leads. My only advice would be to take your time (as it's a laborious task), tin each end of the wires to be joined well first and then simply join them by holding the two wires together and applying a little heat. Oh yeah, and don't forget to add the heatshrink before joing the wires as I did several times. It has been working fine now for over a month now. Good luck, CC
Cool, that reassures me. If it all goes well you'll most likely see it in my upcoming project I'll try and remember to post here too.
Out of curiosity (sorry if i'm totally wrong here), why are you going to the bother of cutting/shortening/heat shrinking the wires when it would be much easier and quicker to pop the pins out of the motheboard connecter, cut the wire and reattach the pins. It involves no heatshrink, minimal soldering (which you dont even have todo if you can get the crimp on the pins tight enough), and it virtually immpossible to fubar. Just my £0.0129 ($0.02). Again, sorry if this is for something totally different as its 1am and I neeeeeeeeeed sleep.
I tried this, but getting the pins out of the mobo connector wasnt as esy (like at all) as a molex, I lengthend all my PSU ATX wires for my borg case, wasnt tricky just took time, tinned well and heatshrinked em all, staggerd then spiral wrapped
Have you actually tried to remove the pins ? I did and it's pretty tricky - something to do with the presure needed to connect it I think - you can buy a tool but it's not worth it for one job. Plus if you do fubar it you are stuffed. I did find out about buying the connectors and found them at RS but you have to buy five connectors and a pack of 100 pins so it's works out v.expensive. Cheers, CC
Interesting Phire, very interesting What tool did you use to remove them ? and did you need to 'tidy' them up after removal ? Cheers, CC
just a regular straight pin (on used on clothing) and some patience......as far as tidying? Well, I used a BiT of electrical tape to hold them all together before I slip the material on.....I can do one whole ps in about 1:15 (hours)
The hard to remove square pins on the ATX and 12V connectors are called "mini-fit" connectors. The tool designed to extract them is Molex #11-03-0044 (see picture on page attached): http://www.action-electronics.com/molex.htm The tool is expensive, and still requires a little fiddling, but is money well spent if you don't have a lot of patience. The four pin connectors for your drives can be removed by the W-HT-2054 or W-HT-2038 on thge same page. In Canada and the US these can be found at Active Electronic Components. I am sure that there are UK distributors for both.
IIRC IIRC, LAst time I needed to do this was on a compaq PSU to make it fit a non compaq PC, I acheived this by opening up the PSU and desoldering the wires from the board, and replacing them with the correct cables, in this case I'd just shorten it then resolder it to the board. MiniG
those look to be what to get...though the molex pin remover for the molexs i have(just some, not the pc ones)have an excellent handle an a spring loaded device...
Just out of curiosity, I am on a limited space with my current project. How are you making the PSU fit in your project? I saw a thread that had a link to making a PSU fit in an old cd drive case but that is not going to work for me either. The only thing I can come up with so far is to buy a 1U rack mount PSU. Any ideas would be appreciated. DId I mention I am to chicken to take my PSU out of its case and mount in my project box?
It just luckily fitted in without the casing and with a little extending of the power cables since the voltage transformer (110 or 230V model) was on a seperate PCB luckily enough so it could be mounted elsewhere in the case. When I say it fitted, I mean JUST fitted. The thickness of the cables for the motherboard connector was a major factor in whether it would fit. Eesh, still can't believe I managed it
I've only done some psu cable rounding here. Does that lower the performance in any way? I still want to shorten the cables to my mobo and maybe some other cables, because they are about 3" oversized in some places in my case. Shouldn't be such a big problem I guess. Easy soldering job right?
Yeah, it's not too hard, and I'm a crap solderer to be quite honest with you. But believe me, it takes a lot longer than you imagine.
Gemma sell the PSU's used in the Shuttle SFF PC's at a reasonable price, especially when compared to the cost of 1U versions in the UK. Cheers, CC
